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Mike Kupfer's avatar

I grow Ambrosia muskmelons every summer. We adore the taste, and I seem to recall having trouble finding them at farmers markets.

I've grown Italian parsley a few times, but I get impatient at having to chop it, and my wife would often forget that it was there in the planter box, which is not visible from the kitchen.

I still have a bunch of coriander (cilantro seeds) that I got at a garden swap; maybe I'll plant some this fall.

I like fresh chives, but I've had problems growing it successfully. The local aphid population apparently likes it, too.

I've never grown fresh marjoram. Dried marjoram is pungent; I think of it as having a not-quite fruity character. It goes well with greens and with egg dishes. One of our moussaka recipes uses it, and some of our black-bean dishes use it.

We grow thyme, rosemary, and Mexican sage, not for cooking but because the bees like them. (I don't even know if the sage is safe to consume. It's a common groundcover here on the Peninsula, despite being almost as invasive as mint.)

One of the fun things about mint is all the obscure varieties. I grew orange mint for several years. I liked orange mint tea, though my wife did not.

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Albert Cory's avatar

Interesting. Unusual fruits are really good to grow. I actually got a galangal plant from Sri Lanka! RIP.

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Mike Kupfer's avatar

I'd never heard of galangal, so I did a web search. It looks like it would be interesting to grow; sorry it didn't survive. Someone once brought a bunch of goji plant cuttings to that garden swap group. I took one and have gotten some fresh goji berries off of it.

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Bill Price's avatar

California's great for growing aromatic herbs.

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Mark Sundstrom's avatar

Agree, these are easy to grow for the most part and each delicious in their own way. And they often just look good too. You mention not using sage and I don't use it much, but it looks good and grows well in my garden, it flowers, and also survives through my central Ohio winter.

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Albert Cory's avatar

Yeah, there's even wild sage, out here at least.

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